Language

You know how it smells after it rains? That clean, greenish smell when rain lands on dry ground? That’s petrichor , from the Greek petra (stone) and ichor (the blood of Greek gods and goddesses). The term was coined by two Australian researchers in 1964. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Site. 20 Obsolete English Words that Should Make a Comeback. 25 Everyday Things You Never Knew Had Names: Pics, Videos, Links, News. Another 25 Words you Don’t Know. Humans Following on from our first list of words you don’t know, we present another 25.

Learn one a day and impress your friends! Words 25 – 21 25. Girn – To bare your teeth in anger and sadness. 10 Curse Words You Don't Know. That’s one version of what happened at Waterloo and it’s a load of old cambronne, but the fact is that no-one seems to know the truth.

After-battle commentary included both Cambronne saying “Merde!” And Cambronne saying “La garde meurt et ne se rend pas!” (The Guard dies and does not surrender!) Cambronne, who survived but was wounded, denied saying either of these things. Nevertheless merde became known in France as le mot Cambronne and in Britain cambronne became an eponymous euphemism. 4. Norman Mailer tried to reintroduce the word in his novel The Naked and the Dead in 1948. By 1950 James Jones’ From Here to Eternity was published with the inclusion of 50 f-words. 5. Later on in life, when I saw Reservoir Dogs at the movies, I realized that Quentin Tarantino must have run into exactly the same group of guys.
What concepts do not exist in the English language?

Time, in such cultures, is always coming as well as going.
" In an essay by Louise Edrich (Two Languages in Mind, but Just One in the Heart), she writes about learning Ojibwemownin and how "nouns are mainly desginated as alive or dead, animate or inanimate...once I began to think of stones as animate, I started to wonder whether I was picking up a stone or it was putting iteslf in my hand.
" I'm fascinated by language reflecting culture and vice versa. Any reference you've run across in passing or even know about as a multi-lingual MeFite is welcome.

Moreover, if English isn't your primary language, what words/concepts made you take pause?
Another 25 Words you Don’t Know. Lexipedia - Where words have meaning. Find Similar or Opposite words at WordHippo.com. 10 Insulting Words You Should Know. There is a crisis of insults on the Web.

On one hand, the volume of flames is very high yet the quality is poor. Gone are the days of the razor-sharp wit of Oscar Wilde and Winston Churchill*, only to be replaced by a string of four letter words typed in ALL CAPS by n00bs (the latest of which is “FAIL”, itself a failure of coming up with a more scathing insult, if you think about it). *For example:"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go," says Oscar Wilde.George Bernard Shaw wrote to Winston Churchill, "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend....if you have one.

" And Churchill wrote back, "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second......if there is one" Well, it’s hard to teach wit - but all of us can learn the next best thing: the approximation of it by obfuscation, i.e. using big, difficult, and obscure words. 1. Analysis: We have the English to thank for this word. 2. Definition: To spray with poo.
100 Most beautiful words in the English language*
20 Obsolete English Words that Should Make a Comeback. 10 Insulting Words You Don’t Know. “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”

That’s what we used to chant as kids when we got into name calling contests in the school yard. Of course, it’s untrue and it’s disingenuous. It implies that the name callers are pursuing a stupid strategy when, in truth, the right insult is deeply wounding. Consider, for example, Jean Harlow. At dinner with Dame Margot Asquith, the wife of British prime minister Herbert Asquith, she kept pronouncing Dame Asquith’s name mar-got rather than mar-go, as it should be pronounced. Nevertheless, Jean Harlow escaped lightly when compared to Lord Castlereagh, a despised British politician, who was held responsible for the massacre at St. Posterity will ne’er survey A nobler scene than this. This four line poem distills the essence of insult. 1. 2. 3.